522 Miscellaneous. 



at Palmyra, in Syria, a like Eagle is sculptured. (See fig. H. in 

 plate 18 of Wood's 'Palmyra.') 



In my work on Baalbec, I have stated, " in both " the sculptures 

 at Baalbec and Palmyra "the Eagles differ from that represented 

 as the attendant bird of Jupiter, by bearing a crest, which may 

 possibly allude to the radiated orb or rays of the sun." (Trans. 

 Roy. Soc. of Literature, vol. vii. p. 300.) 



I will now point out four or five Eagles having a crest or crown, 

 and from one or two of which the sculptured birds at Baalbec and 

 Palmyra may have been designed by the Roman artists. 



Upon the whole, the species which seems to agree well with he 

 sculptures is the Aquila Desmursii. This fine bird is well drawn 

 and beautifully coloured in tab. 77 of vol. iv. 'Trans. Zool. Society ;' 

 but in Hartlaub's work on the Ornithology of West Africa, it is 

 incorrectly written Desmurii (of Jules Verreaux). It occurs at 

 Bissao, in Western Africa, and is called by the natives Socolas ; it is 

 also met with in Abyssinia and Nubia, and along the banks of the 

 White River (Bahr el Abiad). Dr. Hartlaub, however, makes no 

 mention of its cresl. It is much like both A. pennata and A. ncevia. 

 It is subject to many changes in its plumage at various ages, although 

 its usual plumage presents a rich chocolate-colour ; its tail and the 

 extremities of its wings are black. A well-marked " distinction," 

 Mr. Gurney says, "in Aquila Desmursii is a well-defined though 

 small occipital crest, consisting of from eight to nine pointed feathers, 

 the longest of which are fully an inch and a half in length " 

 (p. 365, vol. iv. Trans. Zool. Society). 



This bird especially resembles Wood's representation of the Eagle 

 at Palmyra, both in the size and form of the crest ; but it differs 

 from it in having the tarsi hairy to the toes. Being an inhabitant 

 of parts of Africa, in particular of the west coast, we may reasonably 

 conclude that the Romans might have been acquainted with it. 



Another noble Crested Eagle is given in the woodcut published 

 in the 'Field ' newspaper, on May 23, 1863. It has recently been 

 brought to this country ; and I visited the living specimen in June, 

 last year, at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, where it 

 had then been about four months ; I have also seen the stuffed^ 

 specimen in the British Museum. It was named Harpyhaliaetus 

 coronatus by Temminck, and appeared to be shy. The general 

 colour of its plumage is a lead-coloured grey, and its fine long crest, 

 of a dark grey, becomes nearly black at the end. In this cha- 

 racter it agrees with the two sculptured Eagles, and likewise in its 

 legs or tarsi being bare to the toes. In both of these characters it 

 might answer to the sculptured figures at Baalbec and Palmyra ; but 

 being a native of the New World, in Brazil and Paraguay, we 

 cannot suppose that it could have formed the model for the sculp- 

 tors or architects of these superb temnles, which were erected 

 during the Roman Empire. 



I further noticed a more powerful Eagle among the stuffed birds 

 in the British Museum, which bore a larger and more developed 

 crest; but, as it inhabits "South America and British Guiana," 

 it cannot, for the reason which I have just stated, be referred to 



